Tag: Stefan Schwarzmann

Metal Glorious Metal! How much do I love thee? Thanks to Accept’s Blood of the Nations, I think I just fell in love metal all over again. Just when I thought 2010 was going to be a wash for a stellar metal disc, Blood of the Nations comes along and takes me by surprise! I must admit I was more than a little skeptical when Accept announced their new singer as Mark Tornillo. Not that I have anything against Tornillo. I like his old band T.T. Quick well enough, but Accept without Udo is a hard pill to swallow.

On Blood of the Nations, Tornillo absolutely kills it! His razor-sharp vocals are the perfect match for the superb axe slinging of Herman Frank and Wolf Hoffmann. He does an absolutely fantastic job, and shows that he can sing and scream with the best of them.

What can I say about Herman Frank and Wolf Hoffmann that hasn’t already been said. These two are the six string saviors of classic metal. They let their heavy riffs fly often on this CD, and quite frankly I couldn’t be happier. This is some of the best fretwork that I have heard in a while.

There are far too many cool moments to mention on Blood of the Nations, but in my opinion the best tracks are “Beat the Bastards”, “Teutonic Terror”, “Locked and Loaded” “Pandemic” and “Bucketful of Hate”.

I am an old school Accept fan, and I will always be a fan of Udo Dirkschneider, but Blood of the Nations is the disc that will rekindle the career of this amazing metal band. Come back album of the year? Metal album of the year? Blood of the Nations could be either one of those. This CD is highly recommend to the metalhead nation! Buy This!!Rating: Out of 10

Guitarist Herman Frank is no stranger to this hard rock fan. He has been rocking me hard for years with his guitar work on the classic Accept release, Balls to the Wall. Finally, in 2009, after stints with several other metal bands (Sinner, Moon ‘Doc, Victory), Frank has released his first solo effort.

On Loyal to None, Herman Frank is obviously out to rock your face off. The blistering riffs on “Moon II” immediately demand attention, and the rest of the songs on this CD follow suit in strong fashion. Frank’s high octane fretwork is augmented by the vocals of his band mate from the band Victory, Jiotis Parachaidis. If you haven’t ever heard this guy sing before, you are in for a real treat. His vocals fall somewhere in between David Coverdale & Rob Halford. I have not heard him sing before this release, so I was quite surprised at how good he is. As much as I love the vocals of Paracharidis on Loyal to None, Herman Frank’s guitar work is even better. He doesn’t hold back on this album at all. If you are a fan of classic metal guitar noodling, you are going to love this.

Herman Frank’s band is rounded out with former Running Wild members Peter Pichl and Stefan Schwarzmann. These classic metal musicians help deliver one of the better metal releases of 2009. Loyal to None is strong effort from beginning to end. If you aren’t sold, after listening to the clip of “Metal Gods” (below), your speakers may be broken. There are no songs that I would consider filler. Simply put, this is an fantastic slab of classic metal.

You can check out some additional of the clips on the Herman Frank myspace at this link. You can grab your own copy of Loyal to None from NEH Records here. Highly Recommended!